


The Bonding of Dragon and Rider

by SpencerRemyLvr



Series: A Collection of Ideas [27]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: All Riders are Hunters, Alternate Universe - Dragons, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bonding, Dragon Riders, Dragons, Gift Fic, Hurt Sam, I Don't Even Know, I hope, Sam Winchester - Freeform, Sort Of, The world knows about Dragons and Riders, but not about the rest of the supernatural, enjoy?, je ne sais pas, my take on them, not all Hunters are Riders, the great wall of sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 07:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12228720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpencerRemyLvr/pseuds/SpencerRemyLvr
Summary: Sam had thought he was going to be one of the hunters who would never find a dragon. Every Dragon Rider was a Hunter, but not every Hunter was a Rider. Dean had found his dragon years ago - Sam assumed he was just destined to be without.He was wrong.





	The Bonding of Dragon and Rider

**Author's Note:**

> This was a gift for MonPetitTresor, an he convinced me to post it on here :)

More than anything in the world, Sam Winchester had wanted to grow up to be a Dragon Rider. They had always been like, the _coolest_ of the cool to him. What kid _didn’t_ want to be a Dragon Rider? To be one of the lucky ones destined to be more than just a Handler, or a Caretaker, but to actually be a _Rider_ – someone who was lucky enough to bond an actual dragon. Become their partner, their other half, the piece that made them whole… there was nothing Sam wanted more.

Sam knew all their history. Even the history that the un-bonded rarely know. He knew about the rest of the supernatural world. About monsters and demons and the Hunter who went after them.

Despite the fact that the world knew of the existence of dragons, a large chunk of it had no idea that there was anything else supernatural that existed. Dragons only shared that information with their riders, and riders weren’t stupid enough to pass that information along to anyone else. Though long in human memory, it wasn’t that long ago in dragon memory when humans feared and hunted dragons. When they tried to kill them for being ‘different’. They knew it would take just one thing, one reminder of what else was out there, and they’d run the risk of the humans turning on them again.

That’s how Hunters came into existence. They were the ones that hunted the things that went _bump_ in the dark. They took down the werewolves, the wendigo, the demons, and the ghosts. Hunters, usually with dragons at their side, kept the world safe. Almost every single Rider was also a Hunter, though there were Hunters who weren’t riders.

If Sam had to grow up a Hunter, he at least wanted to be a Rider as well. That would make it all worth it. It’d make it bearable.

When Dean had just turned seventeen, they were starting their third school of the year when they happened upon a dragon that they later learned had been staying near the football field for the last three months. His name was Ryk and he was an Elemental Dragon – earth, going by the dark brown body that seemed to shimmer green here and there, and the brown and green wings. His underbelly, however, looked like it was made of stone scales, which matched the curved horns protruding from his head and the spikes that were on the tip of his tail.

He wasn’t large, roughly the size of a horse around that time, but he was intimidating. And he’d taken one look at Dean and growled out “What took you so long, Rider?”

Their Dad was absolutely thrilled. When Dean brought Ryk home, the dragon shrunk to his smaller size – all dragons could change between two forms, their large form and their small, and Ryk’s small was about the size of a terrier – John had immediately taken them out to buy the necessary supplies.

In one afternoon, Dean gained a dragon, and Sam surprisingly gained a new overprotective big brother. Ryk proved to be just as protective as Dean was, and just as gruff. Dragons were notoriously protective and possessive, especially with family, and for some reason Ryk seemed to view Sam more as Dean’s hatchling than his brother. He often invited Sam down into their nest so Ryk could curl his wing over the both of them and keep watch.

The joy Sam felt for his brother was immense. If sometimes it was offset by pain, or longing, he knew better than to let it show.

* * *

Years later, when Sam’s entire life turned upside down, when Jess was gone and Heaven and Hell had done their very best to destroy the world, Sam was grateful he didn’t have a dragon. He knew he’d never forget what had happened when Dean had gone to Hell. How Ryk had curled up on top of Dean’s grace and almost became a stone himself. Never moving, never even blinking, letting the world go on around him while he sat there on his Rider’s grave, right up until the day that Dean dug his way free.

There was going to be no getting free for Sam. He knew that when he suggested his plans on how to get Lucifer back into the Cage. He knew he was never going to get out, and he was more than grateful that he wouldn’t leave a grieving dragon behind.

What dragon would want to be tied to his soul, anyways?

* * *

Sam went to Hell, to the Cage itself, and came out more broken than ever before. He was soulless, damaged, and getting his soul shoved back in only made things worse. Death put a Wall up to try and protect him, but when had Winchester luck ever held out? Nothing was ever that simple for them. They’d learned that lesson quite a while ago. Even though Dean tried to hold out hope, doing everything he could to keep Sam from poking at the Wall or risking any sort of damage, Sam knew better. He knew it was just a matter of time before everything came crashing down again. He just… he hadn’t expected it to happen quite like _this_.

To have his Wall break was bad enough. To have it ripped down by someone that he’d once considered a friend, someone who he’d thought might be a brother one day – if Dean could ever pull his head out of his ass – and to have it done simply as a way to distract them, as if Sam’s pain were so unimportant in the grand scheme of things… it hurt so much worse.

The pain was like nothing Sam had ever known. Years of Hell memories – hundreds upon _hundreds_ of years of pain and torture and _never ending,_ soul-shattering _agony_ – flood through Sam’s being. It ripped him apart, fracturing a soul that was already so damaged. A soul that hadn’t even begun to heal. It fractured him and left him trapped inside of his mind, pieces of himself floating inside a prison he couldn’t escape from. He was lost inside of it, trapped in himself, without any real hope of ever getting out. Yet, he didn’t let it stop him. He fought with every last scrap of strength that he had. He pushed his way through the pain and tried to find the pieces of himself and somehow manage to piece them all back together.

He had to get to Dean. It was the thought that kept him going. From the instant that he realized what was going on, getting out to help his brother was the thought that allowed him to continue to put one foot in front of the other. To traverse the landscape of his mind and find those parts of himself that had fractured away. It was what helped him to take them on, take on all the pain that they brought with them. His time soulless… his time in Hell. Sam took those on willingly if it meant getting out to help his brother before he went into a fight he wouldn’t be able to win.

But at the very end, as the part of himself that held those memories of the Cage merged once more with the rest of him, there was a brief moment where Sam wasn’t sure he was going to make it. The sheer power of those memories was enough to almost break him once more. They slammed into him like demons, ripping and shredding everything that made him who he was.

Alone in the panic room, Sam’s body seized, a physical manifestation of the indescribable agony he was experiencing. He screamed, both inside his mind and out, a primal plea for _help_ , for someone to just make it stop, please, _God_ , _make it stop_!

He never expected that cry to be answered. He especially never expected it to be answered like _this_.

Through the shadows of his mind there came a cry unlike anything he’d ever heard before. It was a sound that cut through the darkness like a knife. The memories started to push back, not completely gone but not as present, as if a shadow had fallen over them. That shadow grew and wrapped around him in a way that reminded him of demon smoke, only it felt… safe. It felt like _home_.

 **You are safe, Rider** , a voice whispered into his mind. **I’ll keep you safe. I’ve waited a long time for you, I’m not letting you go now. You’re _mine_.**

Love wrapped around him as surely as the smoke did and Sam didn’t bother fighting it. There was a part of his soul that wasn’t quite broken, a piece that seemed to be saying _Yes, this, this is what we’ve been waiting for._ It was as if a piece he hadn’t realized had been missing was finally back with him now. The smoke curled around him, cutting him off from all the memories, and then it washed over him, soothing the pain in his fractured soul. It held him and helped him start to slowly knit those pieces back together. All the while, it whispered words of love, letting Sam know that he wasn’t alone.

He’d never be alone again.


End file.
